One minor chink in the armor of the Tesla Model S is that a small number have caught fire, once their battery packs were penetrated. Nissan Leaf drivers, however, might just be able to weather such an event without an ensuing CarBQ.

We were able to contact the driver quickly and are pleased that he is safe. This was a significant accident where the car was traveling at such a high speed that it smashed through a concrete wall and then hit a large tree, yet the driver walked away from the car with no permanent injury.

Let's start this post the same way we did when we mentioned the news of the first Tesla Model S fire earlier this month: there are hundreds of thousands of vehicles fires around the world every year. But, whenever an electric vehicle goes up in flames – no matter what the cause – the incident is almost always conflated into a bigger story about EVs and their long-term viability. There's no real logic to this, but it does happen.

It looks like the feds are going to finally look into that Tesla Model S car-b-que near Seattle. Earlier this week, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it may start an investigation into why that metal object that struck a Model S in Kent, Washington (about 20 miles south of Seattle) caused the EV to catch fire, the San Francisco Chronicle says, citing NHTSA's David Strickland. NHTSA would've gotten to it earlier except for that pesky partial-government shutdown that furlough

The word for fire in French is "feu." We're not sure how to correctly translate "conspiracy theory," so we'll leave that one alone for now. Two Bollore Bluecar electric vehicles that were part of Autolib's carsharing service in Paris caught fire and were destroyed earlier this week, Plug In Cars reports. The cars were part of a 2,000-car fleet for Autolib. There were no injuries.

By now, you've seen the Tesla headlines, read the reports that its stock dropped (it's now bounced back somewhat), and maybe even discussed the Model S fire with friends and coworkers. But there is now some more official information to share. Yesterday, in addition to publishing emails between the car's owner and Tesla representatives, the Tesla Motors blog published an article about the "highly uncommon occurrence" that revealed that the automaker has sent a team of experts to investigate the c

For the record, there were 187,500 "highway vehicle fires" in the US in 2011 (the last year for which data is available), according to the National Fire Prevention Association. But there was a fire yesterday that is starting to catch some attention, and we're pretty sure you all know why. Electric vehicle fires – whether they be in China or the US, started while moving or stopped – often become comment fodder, even when we learn after the fact that the electric part of the powertrain

Reports are still understandably sparse, but News Press is reporting that a fire at a home in a gated community in Estero, FL might have been caused by either an all-electric Smart Fortwo Electric Drive or its charging station. At the very least, the "Smart car was so badly torched that fire officials couldn't determine its make or model," the News Press writes (most likely, it was a second-gen Smart ED or a converted ForTwo). The fire ended up doing $200,000 worth of damage to a $500,000 home a

Yes, we know that so many gasoline-powered vehicles catch fire every day that only the most local of news reports bother to report on what happened nearby. Still, electric vehicles come under a magnified lens, which is why reports of a BYD E6 taxi catching fire in Shenzhen, China caught our eye.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a formal field inquiry into the garage fire that may or may not have been started by a Fisker Karma sedan, Bloomberg reports. The conflagration, which destroyed the Karma, the garage and a few nearby vehicles, took place on May 3 in Sugarland, Texas.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has launched a formal field inquiry into the garage fire that may or may not have been started by a Fisker Karma sedan, Bloomberg reports. The conflagration, which destroyed the Karma, the garage and a few nearby vehicles, took place on May 3rd in Sugarland, Texas.

"Our technologies and engine design have been fully tested and certified at the highest level. It is irresponsible and ill-informed for technology pundits to suggest otherwise in order to secure media attention for unfounded claims."

Chevrolet Volt owners Storm and Dee Connors were reportedly woken up by the sound of fire alarms in their Barkhamsted, Connecticut home for the second time in a week. As you may recall, the Connors family escaped injury when a garage fire consumed both their new Volt and a home-converted electric Suzuki Samurai on April 14. Now, local news outlets are reporting that the remains of the Volt reignited while still in the charred remains of the garage. The vehicle was not plugged in at the time of t

Chevrolet Volt owners Storm and Dee Connors were reportedly woken up by the sound of fire alarms in their Barkhamsted, Connecticut home for the second time in a week. As you may recall, the Connors family escaped injury when a garage fire consumed both their new Volt and a home-converted electric Suzuki Samurai on April 14. Now, local news outlets are reporting that the remains of the Volt reignited while still in the charred remains of the garage. The vehicle was not plugged in at the time of t